Gluten-free Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Rainy days call me into the kitchen. So does zucchini. I love just about every kind of squash but for some reason zucchini usually ends up in this bread. This particular recipe has been an ongoing experiment in my kitchen inspired by my favorite food bloggers who are experimenting with healthier options in baking. If you are looking for a beautiful bread that has no gluten and no eggs this is it. Buckwheat flour loves chocolate because it *covers the gray*. This bread is nourishing, soft, chewy, and totally decadent. For breakfast!

Place freshly shredded zucchini in a sieve over a bowl to catch any excess moisture as it drains, while you work on prepping the other ingredients and preparing the recipe. Remove as much moisture as possible before combining zucchini with wet ingredients.

Place dry ingredients in a bowl and stir with a fork.

Add all wet ingredients (including zucchini) to another bowl. Stir to thoroughly combine.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until well combined.

Lightly oil or butter 4 small loaf pans or one 8″ loaf pan. Even better: place the batter in an 8×8 glass baking dish. It makes awesome brownies!

Pour the batter into the loaf pan(s) and smooth the top of the batter.

Bake for 50 – 60 minutes or until a toothpick, inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

PS I am now calling this the zucchini bread that morphed into brownies. When my husband started studding his slice with walnuts, telling me what a great brownie this would make, I listened. Place batter in an 8×8 glass baking dish if you’d like to try the brownie version of this recipe. And don’t forget to add some chopped walnuts!

22 Responses to Gluten-free Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Sue Ann, I showed Riley your blog today and and he was blown away by the picture of YOU! At dinner tonight healthy eating came up and of course you came up in that conversation and Riley just could not stop complimenting you on how young you looked! He said you looked like you were 25! Over and over, “Mrs. Gleason looks really, really good. Her skin is so nice”-LOL! He asked, “Does eating healthy make your skin look like that?’ Of course I said, YES!!

Sue Ann, I never would’ve suspected all the “good for you” goodies you’ve packed into this recipe, but your photos are worth a thousand words. Moist, dense, chocolate… best revision of the same ol’, same ol’ zucchini bread recipe I’ve ever seen! Thanks.

Thank you, Kim, and as my husband informed me while devouring this treat, “This one tastes more like a brownie than a bread. Maybe you can add walnuts next time and put the batter in a brownie pan.” Meanwhile I chuckle as he studs his chocolate zucchini bread with walnuts and eats it for dessert instead of for breakfast.

So nice to see you here, Jackie and you’re so right. Gluten-free living can be quite easy when you’re a whole foods advocate. I enjoy experimenting with buckwheat, chickpea and almond flours. Stand by for another recipe I’m experimenting with this week.

Hello Jardena, this bread is very dense, almost a cross between a brownie and fudge but not as sweet. My husband likes it better when I spread it out in a 9X13 brownie pan and turn it into brownies. You can see in the photo above that it is, indeed, very moist. I hope you enjoyed it despite the texture! It shouldn’t be too moist to slice, however! Because there are no eggs in it, you should be able to eat it even in its moist state. I would try warming it up and topping it with some coconut ice cream!

Hi Sue Ann,
Wanted to thank you for this recipe it was a hit in my house!! and yes the kids thought it was brownies. I was afraid it was going to be dry but the opposite they were moist and chewy…just delicious !! The only bad thing is that it only last it ONE day;).
I also try your chocolate bars SUPER good.
I learn about your blog and these recipes from the OPRAH magazine!! The best part for me is that my kids really love the recipes and to know that is so much goodness in them make me happy. Now to try more recipes.

I have this baking in the oven right now 🙂 I hope it turns out as well as yours looks! I’ve been looking for a chocolate zucchini bread recipe and I love that yours uses buckwheat – we are big fans of buckwheat here…

I noticed that the yogurt was left out of this recipe! Thank goodness other websites helped me figure out that it needed a half cup of Greek yogurt. Otherwise I would’ve chalked it up as a flop! But adding the yogurt salvaged it. Love the brownie idea! I made them tonight and they were a big hit! Thank you for sharing!

I think you can experiment here, Teri. I wonder if you can try coconut yogurt to get a little closer. This is a very moist batter so you may be able to leave it out altogether. Let us know how it goes. 😉

Looks amazing! Noticing one of the comments about high moisture content – one thing that has helped me with any zucchini baking is not just to let the grated zucchini drip dry, but to put it in a clean tea towel and squeeze every last drop of moisture you can out of it! Learned that trick from Cook’s Illustrated. Has served me well to make anyone’s zucchini baked good that much better!

Sue Ann Gleason is a culinary nutritionist, radiant life expert, and writer living in the Washington, DC area with her husband John. When not working with clients, she can be found sampling exotic chocolates or building broccoli forests in her mashed potatoes.